For years the task of roofing a dwelling or other structure has conventionally been undertaken using a plurality of individual shingles, whether of asphalt, slate, tile, etc., These individual shingles must be painstakingly laid one at a time in successive horizontal rows starting at a roof's lower edge and proceeding upwardly therefrom to the peak, with each individual shingle being fastened to the roofing substrate. This is a labor intensive and time consuming process. Moreover, the shingles of each successive row must be laid so as to slightly overlap those of the preceding row, an arrangement requiring considerable care in order to ensure that the rows of shingles are disposed in proper relative position. Further complicating this task is the fact that successive rows of shingles are often staggered in relation to preceding rows in order to provide a more aesthetically pleasing appearance to the finished roof. This requires an even greater degree of care to ensure that the individual shingles are properly aligned to convey the desired appearance.
Apart from the issue of time, roofing can also be expensive, particularly where more exotic roofing materials such as slate, tile, or wood are desired. Accordingly, it is most common to employ as roofing comparatively inexpensive asphalt shingles. However, others have more recently developed polymeric roofing which resembles such exotic roofing materials. But despite this advance, little has been done heretofore to facilitate the rapid completion of the roofing task. At best, others have developed roofing panels having the appearance of just two or three individual shingles arranged side-by-side horizontally in a single row. While such roofing materials may speed up the process of laying each successive row of shingles, the improvement is only marginal over the conventional roofing installation methodology.